Tom Coburn

U.S. Senator, 65

By Barack Obama April 18, 2013

Illustration by David Despau for TIME

Tom Coburn and I don’t always agree on the issues. In fact, on the surface, we seem pretty different. I grew up in Hawaii; he grew up in Oklahoma. I’m trying to keep up with two daughters at home; Tom has already raised three.

But after we entered the Senate at the same time, our wives, Michelle and Carolyn, hit it off at an orientation dinner. Pretty soon, we did too. Since then, we’ve bonded over family and faith. And we’ve harnessed our friendship and mutual respect to find places where we can agree and work together to move this country forward.

We co-sponsored the “Google for Government” act, which made government more transparent and more accountable to the American people. We worked together to cut down on earmarks. And we continue to agree on the need to reduce wasteful spending and close tax loopholes that benefit only the well-off and well connected.

The people of Oklahoma are lucky to have someone like Tom representing them in Washington — someone who speaks his mind, sticks to his principles and is committed to the people he was elected to serve.

After I took office, Tom received dozens of letters from Oklahomans complaining that we looked too close on TV. Tom’s response was “How better to influence somebody than to love them?” Each of us still hopes the other will see the light. But in the meantime, we’ll settle for being friends.